


The Choice

by thedarkestskys



Category: Wander Over Yonder (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, In as in character a way as possible, Non-Graphic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 02, Rating May Change, Redemption, She's still a troublemaker even when she's not destroying planets, Slow Burn, Sylvia is a good friend, The power of friendship, There will be no sudden 180 in Dominator's personality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23764498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkestskys/pseuds/thedarkestskys
Summary: "Sorry," He grins sheepishly, “I’m just real glad! I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone. You already know Sylvia, and Hater and Peepers of course! But there are a lot of really great folk down there just waiting to meet you! After all, an enemy-““Is just a friend you haven’t made yet. Yeah, I got it.”--In which Wander was right about Dominator all along.OrDominator accepts Wander's offer of friendship.
Relationships: Lord Dominator/Wander (Wander Over Yonder), Wander & Sylvia Zbornak
Comments: 22
Kudos: 59





	1. The Change

“That’s why you’re such a bully, you’re lonely.” Wander says, and joy at finally starting to understand Dominator wars with sadness, thinking of her all alone on this big empty ship.

This wasn’t exactly how Wander had hoped things would go when he had snuck away from Sylvia and the rest of the revolution. He had been hoping to befriend Dominator so that a fight _didn’t_ have to happen, but unfortunately, he had only sped up the process by leading Dominator right to the secret planet. On the bright side, he feels like he maybe has a chance to get through to her now. If they live long enough.

“I’LL DESTROY YOU!” Dominator screams just as green lightning flashes and they are blasted apart.

Wander's back slams into the ground with a painful jolt, knocking the breath straight out of him. As soon as he can, he pushes himself to his feet, fur frizzing from the charge buzzing through the ship. Explosions shake the floor as he looks around frantically for Dominator. He spots her, green skin bright against the glowing red of the ruined ship. She’s gotten back to her feet and is staring at the decimation around her, uncharacteristically small and afraid in a way that he’s never seen. Wander reaches frantically into his hat as the rumbling beneath him grows and forces his battered body into a sprint. His fingers close around the bottle of orble juice just as he feels heat against his back, and Dominator is lit up stark white by a final, massive explosion.

Eyes shut against the light; all he can hear is the blast. He holds tight to Dominator as their bubble is jostled this way and that. He can’t be sure, but he thinks that amidst the confusion she holds him back.

Soon the world falls still enough that he can feel the pounding of Dominator’s heart against his cheek. He opens his eyes as the smoke outside the bubble clears, immediately seeking out the reassuring blue of Sylvia’s coat on the planet below. After seeing that she’s unharmed, his eyes travel through the battered forms of his friends. A knot in his chest unwinds as he sees that everyone is all right. Hater seems happier than he’s even been, lifted on the shoulders of people who used to hate him.

“Wh-What? Why did you save me? I-I tried to kill you! Like, a lot.” Dominator’s voice brings him back to the situation at hand, and it sounds so unlike her he almost doesn’t realize that she’s the one speaking. It only makes him want to hug her tighter, but he gets the feeling she’s just too surprised to push him away, and he doesn’t want to crowd her. Maybe later she’ll accept comfort, but for now he lets go, bouncing slightly as he lands on the bubble floor.

“Because an enemy is just a friend you haven’t made yet. And there’s a whole bunch of potential friends down there!” He gestures below and answers as cheerfully as he can muster, because just maybe, he’s finally getting through to her. “Sure, you sorta tried to destroy ‘em, so there’ll be a few awkward dinner parties, but if they can cheer for him, they can accept anybody,” He knows it won’t be as easy as all that, but he can make it work, he has to, because he can’t bare the thought of someone so close to choosing good turning back to evil just because they think it’s their only choice.

“But you realized I- like, demolished your entire galaxy?”

“You’d be surprised what you can grow from a little bit of kindness.” Wander gestures to the sky above them, where the faint green of new life is just barely visible on the wreckage of their old galaxy. Despite himself, he feels a twinge of regret at everything that’s been lost, but as he watches Dominator stare in genuine wonder at the fragile formation of new worlds, he knows that they really can make things ok. “It’s never too late for a fresh start. So, let’s try this again,” Dominator’s eyes snap to him as he turns back toward her, tipping his hat with a flourish. “Hello to you! Folks call me Wander! That’s my pal Sylvia. Welcome to the galaxy! We hope you’ll accept our humble gift of friendship!”

He really, really hopes she does. Because after all this, after the end of a galaxy and the birth of a new one, if she doesn’t accept the fruit basket he holds out to her now, he truly doesn’t know what else he can do. Her red gaze moves from him to the crowds of joyous people on the ground and back. There’s a softness to her face he’s never seen before, and as her eyes raise back to his he thinks that for the first time she’s looking at him and seeing a _person._ He feels butterflies all tangled up in his guttyworks, he wants her to accept so badly.

The softness disappears from her face, but he doesn’t have time to think about what that means before she tugs the handle of the basket away from him, back in the confident stance he’s so used to. She holds the basket carelessly in one hand, the other resting against the jut of her hip.

“You’re lucky I’m hungry right now, dork. If this stupid basket doesn’t have apples, you’re gonna regret it.”

Wander squeals in delight. He doesn’t even care that Dominator has put her walls back up, he’s just so _happy_. Before his mind catches up, he’s launching himself towards her with his arms out. He’s stopped by a mint green hand placed firmly on the crown of his head.

“Don’t push your luck, dweeb.” She says. She doesn’t seem angry, but he’s annoyed with himself all the same. What happened to not pressuring her?

“Sorry,” He grins sheepishly, “I’m just real glad! I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone. You already know Sylvia, and Hater and Peepers of course! But there are a lot of really great folk down there just waiting to meet you! After all, an enemy-“

“Is just a friend you haven’t made yet. Yeah, I got it.”

At her lackluster response, Wander tries to temper his enthusiasm. Baby steps, he reminds himself.

“Well,” he says, glancing from her deadpan expression down to the planet’s surface, where Sylvia and the others wait. “Do you want to go meet them?”

Instead of answering, Dominator holds her hand out to him. He shrieks again and grabs it in his, previous calm demeaner forgotten. Dominator rolls her eyes at his goofy grin but walks with him as he leads the Orble bubble down to the planet’s surface.

***

Sylvia is worried. When she had seen the orble bubble emerge safely from the devastation of the ship, she had been too relieved at the familiar sight of Wander’s bright orange fur to care about anything else. Wander has given her a lot of scares in the past, but she doesn’t think she’s ever been as terrified as she was staring up at a ship about to explode, knowing her best buddy was on it and not able to do a thing.

In any case, seeing him safe after that was enough to wipe all fear from her mind, the cheers of all their friends around her filling her with a kind of bubbling, giddy happiness. But now she’s had a minute to start thinking again, and watch him far above with Dominator where she can’t get to him. The others are still cheering, tossing their hero in the air (Hater, of all people), but for Sylvia, it’s not over until the most important piece of the galaxy is back by her side where he belongs.

Sylvia watches as Dominator takes the fruit basket Wander offers her and feels her jaw drop. She can accept Hater switching to the good side, although she still doesn’t quiet believe it, but _Dominator_? That seemed about as likely as Wander kicking a puppy. In other words, impossible.

As the two of them start down towards the planet, Sylvia isn’t the only one paying attention anymore. The cheering slowly dies down as the other’s notice that Wander isn’t the only one approaching. Even Hater seems to sense the change in mood and turns to look. The two reach the planet’s surface and are freed from the bubble with a _pop_. Wander, as usual, bulldozes through the tension with his usual stubborn cheer.

“Sylvia!” Wander launches himself at her like a fuzzy orange rocket.

“Wander!” Tension or no, nothing is going to stop Sylvia from grabbing her friend in the tightest hug she can muster. The feeling of his warm fur tickling her chin finally unwinds the last bit of unease in her chest. She just breaths for a moment, soaking up her friend’s comforting presence.

“Good to see you, buddy.” She whispers into his fur.

As Wander finally pulls away, she turns her gaze wearily to Dominator. The woman in question is standing with her arms crossed a few feet away, watching their reunion with a bored expression. It doesn’t look like the face of someone who feels bad about what they’ve done, or even someone who wants to be there at all.

“Boy, I sure am happy to see all of you guys! I’m so glad everyone’s okay!” Wander says, looking at everyone around them before he seems to realize something and turns back to Dominator. He walks up to her. Sylvia’s fingers itch to grab him back.

“You all remember Dominator, of course.” He says, reaching up to take her hand again. Sylvia half expects her to slap him away, but she allows the gesture without complaint. Wander turns his blazing smile to his friends around him. “She’d really like to meet you all! Properly this time, without even a little destroying. Right, Dom?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, sure.” It’s not a very encouraging response, but now Wander is practically vibrating in excitement, looking around as though hoping someone will come up and introduce themselves.

Wander isn’t stupid, and he’s not nearly as obvious as he sometimes appears. Sylvia knows he feels the tension in the air, but she also knows that he’s made up his mind to help Dominator. After what happened the last time she had argued with him on that point, she isn’t exactly willing to do it again. Still, it didn’t mean she really bought into Dominator’s sudden change of heart.

“Sylvia,” She strode up to Dominator, offering her hand. If it happened to bring her close enough to pull Wander out of harm’s way, well, that was just coincidence, “Although you already know that.”

“Oh yeah, the Zbornak, I remember you.” Dominator lets go of Wander’s hand to clasp hers tightly, Sylvia gripping back just as strong. The idea that Dominator could possibly have forgotten who she was after the amount of times they’ve run into each other is insulting, but Sylvia won’t let her get to her.

“Good to know I made an impression,” They hold eye contact until Wander catches Sylvia’s eye. He pouts at her, puppy dog eyes sparkling. Sylvia scoffs but relents, letting go of Dominator’s hand to cross her own over her chest. “So, what, you don’t want to destroy us anymore, just like that?” Oops. That probably wasn’t the response Wander was hoping for from her. Well, she could only be so nice to the almost destroyer of the galaxy.

“Yeah, well, Wander _is_ pretty convincing. I’m fully reformed now.” Sylvia snorts disbelievingly. Dominator eyes her contemplatively, “Plus, it turns out a destroyed galaxy is even lamer than one full of dorks.”

“See! She doesn’t want to destroy anyone anymore!” Wander pipes up. Sylvia refrains from pointing out that that’s not exactly what Dominator had said. No one else seems convinced either, notably King Bingleborp, who is near vibrating with rage. “I know it’s hard to change the way you see someone,” Wander continues, “and I know Dominator’s done some… bad things.”

“She destroyed the whole galaxy!” Someone yells. Sylvia thinks it might be Trudy, but she’s not sure.

“Yeah, she did do that… But we’ve all made mistakes and done things that we regret. Even if hers is… a little bigger than most, that doesn’t mean she can’t change! I know ya’ll might not trust her, but I hope you feel like you can trust me, and I know there’s good in her. And what kind of people would we be if we turned away someone who wanted to be good? If we rejected someone without even giving them a chance?”

Privately, Sylvia felt like Wander had already given Dominator more chances than she deserved, but she had already decided to back Wander on this one. At least, for as long as Dominator behaved. Still, she wasn’t sure that his efforts were going to go anywhere, the group before them shifting uncomfortably, most with hands still on their weapons. Then Major Threat stepped forward.

“Hey man, I think we should give her a chance. If Tumbleweed says she’s got good in her then I believe him. The little guy’s never let me down before.” Everyone seems to settle as Major Threat walks up to the trio, calm as ever. “The name’s Jeff. I used to be a villain too, until this little buddy cleared things up for me,” He squishes Wander’s hat playful onto his head in that lazy way of his. Wander giggles as he pushes the brim back up.

“Oh yeah, I think I remember seeing you at the bottom of the villain leaderboard.” Dominator says.

“Yeah, that’s me. I worked hard for that spot, man.”

Sylvia could hear Hater boo from somewhere in the crowd, along with Peeper’s softer “Please, Sir.” Honestly, she was surprised he had stayed out of things this long. That seems to be over though, as he comes charging up to the front of the pack, Commander Peepers right behind.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS!? You guys are just gonna let Dominator do whatever she wants!? She broke my heart—I MEAN DESTROYED THE GALAXY! It’s not like I cried about it or anything. ANYWAYS SHE DESROYED THE GALAXY.”

Dominator looks way too pleased with herself.

“Aw, come on Hatey,” Wander starts, sidling up to him, “Anyone can change, just like you did, you big hero, you.”

“UGH. I AM NOT A HERO. Obviously I am totally cool enough to be a hero, and everyone should look up to me and my awesome powers, BUT I’M STILL TOTALLY TERRIFYING AND EVIL.”

“Don’t be modest, I always knew there was good deep down in those bones a’ yours.”

“I think we’re getting a little off topic guys.” Sylvia cuts in, knowing those two could go on for hours, “can we stick with the real issue, here? Are we going to let Dominator stay, or not?”

Maybe it isn’t the best idea to state the problem so plainly. Wander is clearly trying to skirt around the issue, but Sylvia is sick of the pointless back and forth. She just wants this stupid day to be over with already.

Unfortunately, she was right about it being a bad idea. As soon as she finishes speaking, everyone starts shouting over each other, trying to get their two cents in. After everything, the noise is overwhelming. People crowd in, and Sylvia is jostled as arguments break out. Amongst the confusion of gesturing arms and stomping feet, Sylvia pushes people aside until she can see Wander again. He’s standing in the empty space that has formed around Dominator; it seems that even in this chaos no one wants to get near her. Despite this, Wander has planted himself in front of her protectively. It’s such a funny sight, her little, gentle friend guarding the all-powerful Dominator, who towers over him even without her suit. Still, Wander is determined. He takes a deep breath, slim chest puffing forward.

“STOP,” he screams, but the sound is lost amongst the chaos. He yells again, but Sylvia knows he won’t get anywhere like this. Pushing bodies away, Sylvia bullies her way back to her buddy’s side.

“SHUT UP.” She roars. A yelling Zbornak is not something to be ignored, and everyone is startled into silence. Still, she knows that won’t last unless someone does something, fast. Luckily, Wander seems to have an idea.

“Everyone! Please don’t fight anymore. Just a bit earlier you were all working together as a team. As friends. Don’t let that change just cause the galaxy is safe now.” Wander slumps a little, looking down, “I know ya’ll don’t like Dominator, and I know you don’t trust her. I understand why. I can’t make you accept her into the galaxy if you don’t want to.” Everyone is silent, some shift guiltily, others seem triumphant, “But I can’t just let her leave, either. Not alone. So, if she goes, I’m going with her.” Wander looks up, teary eyed, “Golly, I sure will miss ya’ll a lot.”

No one moves, no one says anything. Wander turns to Sylvia, as if to say goodbye. She’s frozen in shock like everyone else; she doesn’t even have the presence of mind to turn and see how Dominator feels about all of this. But if Wander tries to leave without her, she already knows what she’s going to do. She doesn’t want to leave this galaxy, least of all with Dominator, but there’s no point in staying if Wander isn’t here. If she can go to the ends of the galaxy to return a lost sock, she can go a heck of a lot farther for her best friend.

In the end, she doesn’t have the chance to say any of that. Pandemonium breaks out, but this time there’s no fighting. From the reassurances, backtracking, denials, and even a few tears, the choice is clear: Wander stays.

And so does Dominator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you enjoyed! This is my first fic, so criticism is welcome. I'm trying to keep everyone in character, so if something seems off feel free to let me know. All dialogue up until Dominator accepts the basket is from the show, but that's the only time that'll happen.
> 
> I always felt like there should be more written for this pairing, but never had any ideas until now. I've got a vague plan but I'm sorta winging it. This is gonna be a slow burn, cause that's my favorite, so buckle up.


	2. The Nightfall

Dominator leans against the smooth bark of a palm tree, watching the others scuttle about in the evening light, setting up tents and other sleeping accommodations. Every once in a while, one of them will glance at her, but none of them seem inclined to ask for her help. Smart of them; she doesn’t take well to being ordered around.

The aftermath of her “acceptance” into the group had mostly consisted of awkward stares and shuffling feet until the Zbornak had taken charge. It was a shame she was so caught up in her pesky morals, she could make a great galactic dictator with the way she ordered people around. Dominator was more a fan of threats and manipulation than shouting, but she could admire the effectiveness of her technique. In any case, it had gotten the group to head back to their pathetic hideout, where Wander insisted on giving her a tour, to her amusement and everyone else’s discomfort. Imagining them huddling like ants in their little cave because of her had lessened the sting of her eventual loss. Somewhat.

After seeing it again, everyone had seemed to decide collectively that the hideout had outlived its usefulness, which left them where they are now; haphazardly attempting to organize at least a temporary new living situation. Even Hater and the watchdogs are helping, despite the fact that they’ll be staying on their ship (which is grounded, but still intact enough to serve as housing, unlike her own ship). It seems that Hater had gotten a taste for hero worship earlier, and now soaks up the survivor’s thankfulness as he stands shouting pointless orders at the watchdogs while his little assistant does the real organizing.

Watching them all scuttle about is a little bit like watching the bots work, but way less efficient; the bots would have been finished at least an hour ago. As it is, the sun is starting to sink too low to continue working, and work has started to halt in favor of debating who will spend another night in the cave since they haven’t managed to set up enough tents.

A little orange blob breaks away from the group to hop towards her. Dominator leans back as Wander stops a foot away from her. His casual disregard for personal space still caches her off guard, even among the other overly social dorks in this galaxy she has never met anyone less bothered by closeness to others. A shame, getting in people’s faces is one of the easiest ways to intimidate them. Ah well, not like it would be the best idea to drive away the only person who sort of wants her here. She isn’t even sure she wants her herself here. 

“Hey, Dom! I noticed ya don’t seem to have a place to sleep.” Wander says, backing off a bit and smiling sheepishly, “I thought you probably wouldn’t want to sleep in the hideout, cause you didn’t seem to like it much, so maybe we could figure something out together? Unless you do like the hideout?”

“Why would I like that dingy cave?”

Wander scuffs the ground with his heal, “Yeah, I guess it doesn’t look like much, huh? Sylvia did make it all on her own, you know? And she did it real quick too. But you never did see it full of people and music, all lit up with the lanterns and party lights the Fancy-Shmancy’s brought. It’s a whole lot nicer that way. It’s too bad they took them down already,” He gazes forlornly at where the aforementioned lights have been strung haphazardly around the palm trees lining the beach. Wander is the only person Dominator has ever met who could sound wistful for the time he spent hiding from a supervillain in a cave. Then again, Dominator has never talked to anyone who has been in that situation, since she usually destroys them. So, who knows, really. 

“Since you like it so much, I guess you’re going to sleep there?” Dominator says, glancing at the ramshackle entrance.

“Ah, well actually, me and Syl usually sleep outside anyways. Ain’t no ceiling like the stars over our heads, I always say.”

“You and the Zbornak. Of course. Is there anything you two don’t do together?”

Wander actually stops to think about it, which would honestly be a little worrisome if Dominator actually cared. She is starting to realize why everyone in this galaxy might be insane: She would lose it too if she had to spend every waking (and sleeping) hour with someone else. Finally, Wander answers.

“Well, I usually wake up first, so I make breakfast on my own. And if we go to a beach planet Syl usually likes to sunbathe while I explore, but other than that… yeah pretty much!”

“Wow that’s… you know what, I’m not even surprised.”

“We really do spend a lot of time together, huh? But I guess that’s just what it’s like to have a best pal!” Wander says, shrugging with a smile. There’s a warm sparkle in his eyes when he talks about his friend. Dominator thinks of how he had looked only a few hours ago, gazing up at her just like this, only with the ice likeness of that same friend’s head in his arms and despair on his face. This suits him better, Dominator is surprised to realize, but she doesn’t know what to do with it. Fear, anger, grief; she knows how to handle those. But a smile she doesn’t intend to crush into the dirt? That’s out of her comfort zone.

“If that’s the case, glad I don’t have one of those,” Dominator pushes off the tree, turning with a flip of her hair before Wander can say something stupid about “the power of friendship” or whatever. She’s had enough mushy dork talk for one day.

“And don’t worry about me,” She calls over her shoulder as she walks away into the shadow of the trees, leaving Wander staring uncertainly after her, “I don’t need your help finding a place to sleep. Unlike you and that Zbornak, I do just fine on my own.”

***

Later that night, the wildness of the day has finally faded, and the beach is hushed except for the whisper of waves over sand and the quiet rustle of palm leaves. The dark little planet is even darker, with only the stars to cast light on the sleeping denizens… Mostly sleeping denizens. Wander is awake, gazing up at those stars from his customary place on Sylvia’s back. Even with the crickets chirping and a cool breeze ruffling his fur, Wander is having trouble falling asleep. Not even the knowledge of his friends in their tents all around him, and the feeling of Sylvia’s deep breaths rising and falling beneath him are enough to relax him. A lot had happened that day, and even though Wander is used to a bit of craziness in his day to day life, this had been different.

When Wander had offered Dominator the fruit basket, a part of him honestly hadn’t believed she would accept it. And he’s glad she did, of course! Fiercely glad. It’s only that he’s never had a villain accept his offer of friendship and then seem like they didn’t want to go through with it. Jeff had been hard to convince, but once he had made the choice to change, he had become quickly devoted to goodness, and almost overly grateful to Wander for guiding him to is. Hater was almost the opposite of Dominator; he won’t say it out loud, but they both know he doesn’t really want to destroy Wander anymore. And they get along too well for Hater not to like him at least a little bit. That counts as friendship in Wander’s book.

Dominator though, Dominator is different. Except for that moment of vulnerability right after her ship blew up, Wander hasn’t seen any indication that she even wants this. He isn’t expecting her to become a pillar of love and kindness overnight, but all he’s managed to get from her so far is apathy. It’s almost scary to see, with how passionate she had been before, even if that passion _had_ been for horrible things. Part of him expects to wake up in the morning and find her gone. He’s not sure what to do if that happens.

After a while, the sound of the waves and Sylvia’s quiet snores lull him to sleep.

***

Wander’s panting fills the air. He’s running, but his feet keep slipping on the uneven floor. Even the glowing orange walls won’t stay still, twisting and flowing into each other, a labyrinth that changes until he isn’t even sure what direction he’s facing.

A laugh rings out, echoing through the tunnel, and Wander doesn’t know where its coming from, but he knows she’s close. She’s going to catch him. He had seen the glint in her eyes, like a starving predator that’s just found its next meal. _She’s going to tear him apart_.

Wander spots a tunnel, and beyond it, stars. _Safety_. He makes a mad dash for it. Lungs burning like the crystal-clear air is full of smoke, his outstretched hand has just passed the entrance when the wall swarms shut, trapping his hand up to the wrist.

“No, no, no, no!” He cries, tugging at his arm, but it won’t budge.

“ _Wander_ ,” He hears the whisper from right behind him, tickling the fur on the back of his neck. He turns around, back slamming into the wall, wrist bent at an almost painful angle to allow the position.

Another laugh echo’s around the cavernous room he’s now found himself in. The ship’s bridge, he realizes as he looks around. And at the front, leaning against the towering captain’s chair, is her.

Dominator.

She prowls toward him, scarlet eyes almost glowing against the pale green of her skin. Reaching him, she kneels down to his level and he flinches back, feels the wall swallow up more of his arm and back as he presses into it. Dominator shushes him, her hand comes up to stroke the fur along the back of his head as he trembles.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” She smiles at him, all glinting teeth and sharp angles. She leans in until the red of her eyes is all he can see, hand tightening painfully in his fur as he tries to move away, “After all, you’ve already brought me exactly where I want to be. We are going to have so much _fun_ together.”

Suddenly she’s falling forward, head landing in his lap. Only it’s no longer attached to her body, and it’s no longer Dominator’s.

Wander holds Sylvia’s severed head and screams.

***

Waking up with a jerk, Wander yelps as the motion sends him sliding off Sylvia’s back. The situation comes back to him all at once and he covers his mouth just before he lets loose the scream stuck in his chest. The last thing he wants is to wake everyone up; after everything they’ve been through, they need their sleep.

Still, he can’t quiet manage to get his hands to stop trembling. The shadows of the tents all around tower like dark mountains, and the cold air burns his lungs as he tries to slow his breathing. The still form of Sylvia, usually a comfort, just brings up images of his dream; of her eyes, glassy and lifeless. It’s only the slow rise and fall of her stomach that holds his panic at bay. Still, he thinks he would feel a lot better if he could just talk to her, just for a second, to make extra, extra sure she was alright.

Climbing clumsily to his feet, he edges around her body, stepping carefully over her tail until he’s kneeling near her head where it wraps around her torso. Biting his lip, he hesitates for one more second before waking her.

“Syl,” He whispers. She snuffles. “Hey, Syl, wake up.”

“Ha, whatsit?” She mumbles, eyes half opening.

“Heyyyy, Syl. I don’t mean ta bother you, just wanted to make sure you were feeling fine and dandy. You sure were sleeping deeply, huh? You should probably get back to that, actually. Forget I bothered you-“

“Hey, hey, hey,” Sylvia says, shaking off the residual sleep and raising her head to his eye level. “You okay, bud? You’re shaking.”

“Oh, sure! I’m a-ok! Just checking in, you can go back to sleep now.”

“Buddy,” Sylvia gives him her sternest stare, but the concern in her eyes softens it too much to be intimidating, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong! Why would something be wrong?” He laughs nervously. Sylvia continues staring. Wander deflates, shivering in the night air, “It was just a bit of a bad dream is all, nothing to worry about. You really should sleep. Look, I’ll even go back to bed too.”

He starts to draw away, only for Sylvia to reach out and grab his hand, strong fingers gentle but firm, “Buddy, if it was bad enough for _you_ to wake me, it’s not nothing. Do you want to talk about it?”

Behind his eyes, Wander sees a flash of scarlet eyes, and the blue of Sylvia’s coat, dull and splattered with red. It was just a dream; Sylvia is safe and Dominator… well she said she wants to be his friend. He’s not one to doubt people’s intentions, and he won’t let a little nightmare shake his faith in her. He shakes his head.

“I really am okay now, Syl. Just needed to see a friendly face.”

“… If you’re sure, buddy.” Sylvia still looks conflicted, “But you can always tell me anything, you know that right?”

“Of course I do!” Wander says, “But I feel better already, really, I promise.” And he isn’t lying, the sight of Sylvia’s warm, _living_ eyes, and gruff but caring voice has driven off the lingering fear of the dream, and Wander lets out a huge yawn as the last of the adrenalin fades and exhaustion sets back in.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Sylvia says, the corners of her mouth twitching up as he yawns again, “But maybe you should sleep down here, just in case you have another one.”

Wander gives a few sleepy protests, if he does have another nightmare, he doesn’t want to disturb her sleep even more. But Sylvia’s strong presence is too soothing, and he quickly stops arguing, settling in with her warmth at his back and his head resting in the crook of her long neck. He falls asleep quickly like that, sleeping dreamlessly until morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thanks to everyone who commented and gave kudos! It motivates me way better than I could do on my own. Hope you liked the chapter! I'll try to get the next one out sooner.


	3. The New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry! I have no idea how so much time passed between this chapter and the last. I promise I have not lost interest or forgotten about this fic, I just apparently have no concept of the passage of time. On the bright side this chapter is longer than the first two combined, so there's that at least.

Wander wakes up slowly. For a few moments, the world consists of only the golden glow of sunshine behind his closed eyelids and the steady rise and fall of Sylvia’s breath behind him. Too groggy and comfortable to open his eyes, he nestles deeper into the warmth and allows himself to drift back into a luxurious half sleep, just awake enough to appreciate it.

After a while the warmth becomes too much, so he forces his eyes open. He’s disoriented for a moment, seeing from a lower vantage point than he is used to when he wakes up, before he remembers why he’s not on Sylvia’s back. Her neck is still curled around him, head tucked snuggly into his side, quiet snores tickling the fur there. He watches her for a moment, filled up with a warm fuzzy gratefulness to have her, and behind that, guilt; for waking her or not telling her the truth about his dream, he’s not sure. He knows she would want to know what was bothering him, but she’s already wary of Dominator, and her being even more protective of him isn’t going to help in befriending her. He can’t really blame Syl, even setting aside Dominator’s attempted destruction of the galaxy, Sylvia had actually been the closest to befriending Dominator before he had (even if she hadn’t known at the time just who she was befriending) and that hadn’t ended well. Still, his gut tells him things are different this time… they _have_ to be.

Feeling a bit more awake, Wander quietly untangles himself from Sylvia, moving as slowly as he can so as not to wake her. Once he’s free he reaches up, stretching out the stiffness in his limbs. He breaths in deep, enjoying the salt of the sea air and letting the cool morning breeze blow away the last of the sleepiness in his limbs. It’s a beautiful day, all golden sunshine and blue skies, the perfect fresh start to a new galaxy, and Wander is determined to move forward without lingering on old fears and silly nightmares.

He thinks that maybe an extra special breakfast is in order, to mark the occasion. A quick glance around shows that he’s the only one up so far. As much as he would like to, he’s pretty sure he can’t manage to make a full breakfast for everyone on his own, but he’s definitely not going to wake anyone up; after everything they’ve been through, the group deserves to sleep in.

Well, he may not be able to wake everyone up to the joy of a fresh homecooked breakfast, but he can at least make things a bit easier by gathering some ingredients. Their food stores had been pretty much used up before everything went down, and with the end of the galaxy near no one had had the time or felt the need to refill them. But since the galaxy is still here and filled with folk who need to eat, Wander sets out towards the jungle lining the beach, weaving carefully between tents as he goes.

The air is cooler beneath the trees and tinted green as it filters through the thick foliage. Before searching in earnest, Wander stops at a stream the group had found a while ago and takes a few minutes to drink and freshen up. The water is cool, but not cold, and it feels good to wash away the lingering sweat from his nightmare. After shaking the water from his fur, he feels ready to start the day.

Years of scavenging breakfast for him and Syl from all different planets has made Wander great at foraging, and, not to brag, very knowledgeable on the flora of the galaxy. He finds some blue jelly-fruits hanging low only a couple minutes in. Their smooth skin gleams in the light filtering through the trees, and they slosh with juice inside as he plucks them off the tree, careful not to break their thin skins. It takes him a couple minutes to clear the whole thing, and he has a close call with a knock on the head as a branch breaks beneath his feet when he climbs for a particularly high one, but in the end, he has a substantial pile of plump blue fruits. It takes a few trips to carry armfuls of them back to the beach. By the time he’s moved them all, the day has gotten warm and Wander’s fur is starting to dry. Still, the fruit he’s piled in the sand looks meagre compared to the sea of tents before him. He’s pretty sure the watchdogs have at least a bit food in their ship, and they still have _some_ rations left, but even so there is clearly not enough. Wander huffs, makes sure the pile is completely in the shade, and heads back into the cover of the trees.

Small though the planet is, it has plenty to spare. It almost feels like it’s still taking care of them, even though there’s no threat to guard them from anymore. Wander finds a sweet-berry bush and fills his hat, a couple crackle-egg trees, and even a few purple warble-roots. Everything is peaceful until his third trip from the beach, when the birdsong is interrupted by a dull bang and a curse. Someone else must be up, but Wander’s not sure who else would be in the jungle at this time.

Pushing a branch aside, Wander walks toward the sound and stumbles into a clearing. Light filters through the thinned branches, illuminating a path of upturned dirt. It looks like something has been dragged through the ground. Following the trail with his eyes, what he sees next makes him freeze. Black and red; sleek and dark metal with veins of glowing lava. It stands out like tear in the fabric of the bright new day: Wreckage from Dominators ship.

For a second Wander is so shocked he doesn’t even notice the other person in the clearning. Wander looks up and sees Dominator staring at him, the red of her iris’s just a shade lighter than the glowing lines in the scrap of metal beneath her. Something in Wander tenses up at the sight, whispers “danger,” but her surprised expression is enough to stop the hint of fear that shouldn’t even be there.

Dominator quickly drops her foot and stands straight, making a show of inspecting her gloved fingernails. Wander notices a couple branches stuck in her white hair. She looks so out of place surrounded by nature instead of the geometric lines of her ship that it takes him a minute to find his voice.

“H-hey Dominator,” He says, wincing at how unsure he sounds. He tries to put the usual enthusiasm back in his voice, “Beautiful day, ain’t it?”

Dominator raises a brow at him, squinting in the bright morning sun, “Sure, if you like blinding sunshine directly in your eyes,” she says, clearly tired and groggy, and Wander is reminded of when she had appeared at the end of Hater’s song to her in a bathrobe, cup of coffee in hand even though it had been well into the day. She’s clearly not a morning person. “What are you doing here?” She grumbles, like talking to him is the last thing she wants to do. Still, the fact that she’s even making conversation is victory enough for him right now.

“Just scrounging up some breakfast for everyone.” He says, pretending not to hear her reluctance and holding up his armful of roots.

She eyes the plants before snorting, some of the tension seeming to drain from her, “Of course you are. What, your little friends aren’t helping you?”

“I thought it would be best to let ‘em sleep. I’m sure they’re all worn out after yesterday,” Wander ignores her patronizing tone, choosing to take it as a good sign that she’s even asking about the others. He hesitates awkwardly, eyeing the slump of Dominator’s shoulders and the bags under her eyes. She starts to shift at his staring, eyebrows pulling down in annoyance, so Wander blurts out the first thing he can think of to break the silence.

“Have you been up all night?” He says, only to regret it as Dominator tenses up again, “Not- not to pry or anything,” He tacks on lamely.

“None of your business, dweeb,” Dominator says, turning away from him to heft the end of the ship’s debris back into her arms, “Why don’t you go back to slaving away for your little friends.” She starts to pull it away, dismissing him, and Wander considers leaving, not wanting to push her when she already clearly in a bad mood… its only that she’s having trouble. The metal keeps slipping out of her hands, and the edges look sharp, forcing her to hold it at a weird angle to avoid cutting herself. She hasn’t asked for his help, but friends help friends, and she did say she would be his friend. Maybe this is his chance to start showing her how great a friend can really be, someone to care about her troubles and show her that even if she _can_ go it alone, doesn’t mean she has to.

Wander glances again at the scrap of metal, hesitating. What does she even want it for? A piece of that ship with its endless corridors, its walls that pulse with the flow of lava behind them, like blood through veins and arteries… Wander forcefully shakes off the thought, making up his mind and placing the warble-roots on the ground by his feet. Whatever she needs it for doesn’t matter, the debris technically does belong to her, and he could never appose cleaning up the environment.

“Dominator, wait!” He says, jogging across the clearing. Her eyes snap over to him as he stops at the opposite side of the debris still dragging on the ground.

“You look like you could use a hand, and I got two good ones right here!” He says, holding them out as if to demonstrate.

“What?”

“I mean, would ya like some help?”

“Help, from you?” Dominator scoffs, glancing at the heap of metal that is admittedly larger than Wander is and letting out a derisive laugh, “That’s rich.”

“No, really, we can work together, like this!”

Wander reaches down and hoists the other end of the debris it into his arms, mindful of the sharp edges. The metal is warm, and even now pulses with a strange kind of life.

When Wander looks back up Dominator is still staring at him and doesn’t move. Wander smiles, trying to ignore how the red glow from the metal makes her look a bit too much like the version of her from his dream. 

“If we work together, we can get work done twice as fast,” Wander says, “Like putting up tents for everyone yesterday, none of us could have done it alone.”

Wander glances up to see Dominator’s face twisted into a scowl.

“You think I need help? From someone like you?” She says. Wander’s not really sure what she means by that. He knows he should probably be offended, but he’s never been one to linger on insults to himself, and right now he’s more concerned with staying on friendly terms with Dominator.

“Uh… no?” Wander fumbles for the right words, “I mean, everyone can use a helping hand sometimes, right?”

Those were apparently not the right words. Dominator sneers, dropping her end of the metal, which lands with a dull thud on the dirt. Wander scrambles to keep ahold of his end without cutting up his hands. He soon loses focus on that as Dominator prowls toward him. “I get that the people of this galaxy are incompetent, so I guess I can forgive your stupidity, but I really thought you would have learned better by now: I’m not like the rest of you”

“Hey, they aren’t- “ Wander starts, but she cuts him off.

“I’ll let you play your little friendship games until I get bored; might as well get some amusement out of what’s left of this waste of a galaxy.” Wander stumbles back a step as Dominator steps closer. He can’t seem to get his hands to loosen their grip on the metal, which creeks as its dragged back an inch. “But don’t let that mix you up: I’m not some damsel,” Dominator stops an inch away, towering over him. Her voice drops to a dangerous pitch, like the humming of her ship’s engines, “I’m still the bad guy.”

Wanders hands shake, he stares up at her with wide eyes. Her white hair is backlit and glowing in the light of the sun, the branches in her hair that had made her look so approachable moments before now framing her head like a dark crown. He had just wanted to help. He doesn’t know what he did wrong, how is he supposed to fix it?

“Dom, I—” He starts, but her face twists into a snarl.

“It’s LORD DOMINATOR,” She yells, and Wander jerks hard. His body moves without his permission and he tumbles backwards, the scrap of metal falling with a clang. His hands slip in the loose dirt as he pushes away from the looming figure of Dominator, who’s cold demeanor starts to change as she watches him scramble away. 

It’s not a good change. Her lip twitches up into a smirk, her teeth glint as she grins, and Wander thinks she’s about to start laughing, the same echoing laugh from when she chased him on the ship, when she freezes.

Wander watches as her head tilts to the side like a cat who’s spotted a bird, eyes narrowing, no longer meeting his eyes, but looking slightly down and to the right. He follows her gaze down to his arm, where he takes in the mess of bright red with a distant kind of horror.

“You’re… bleeding.” She says, and he realizes she’s right. There’s blood matting his fur together in thick clumps, the shining color almost obscuring the cut that trails slantwise from the base of his thumb around to the back of his arm. He must have cut himself when he dropped the wreckage of the ship, although he hadn’t felt it at all. Now that it’s been pointed out he can feel a throbbing pain in his arm, but the adrenalin still coursing through him keeps it distant, dull. Much more prominent is the sudden, instinctual horror he feels.

Wanders eyes flick back up to Dominator, who’s still staring at the cut on his arm with a disturbing amount of fascination, eyes tracing the path the blood makes as it drips down his arm towards the ground. Wander feels like a wounded bird who’s just stumbled in front of a starving cat.

Instinctually, Wander grips his forearm with his uninjured hand, to stop the bleeding or hide it from Dominator’s gaze, he isn’t sure. The movement brings Dominator’s attention back to his face; he’s not sure if its better or worse. Her eyes glint with a similar excitement as when she had smashed his banjo and broken Hater’s heart. Like when she had first weaseled out of him the existence of the secret planet. Wander cringes back. He has no idea what she’s going to do, but her stance, tense like a predator about to pounce, makes it clear she’s going to do something, and whatever it is it won’t be good. He wishes Sylvia was here, and he’s also desperately glad she’s not. He braces himself as Dominator’s gaze flickers down to his arm once more, opens his mouth to say something, anything to calm down the situation, when Dominator… Turns away?

Wander watches in hazy confusion as Dominator seems to lock down whatever had been shining behind her eyes. Her stance shifts almost imperceptibly, no longer tense, and her movement returns to the languid stride he’s more familiar with.

Dominator turns her back to him, walks back to the wreckage of her ship, and hoists it up. The grating scrape of metal on dirt sounds louder than it should as she starts to drag it away. He stares in a hazy kind of shock after her as she goes, his heartbeat throbbing in his head and his arm, which is slowly starting to pulse with pain as his adrenalin fades. Just before reaching the edge of the clearing, Dominator hesitates, turning back to him, something flashing in her eyes too fast for Wander to understand even if he had been clearheaded.

“You should clean that up.” Dominator nods to his arm before she turns away again, “Blood’s a lot harder to get out of hair once it’s dry, trust me.”

Wander stares after her as she leaves, still gripping onto his sluggishly bleeding arm.

He’s not sure how long he sits staring at the point Dominator had disappeared, feeling his rabbit fast heartbeat in his throat. His head feels foggy and is starting to pulse with a dull headache, but behind the pain and fading fear is confusion. Dominator can be scary, he knows that, but this had felt different, sudden and out of control. He doesn’t understand how things had escalated and then ended so fast. What had gone wrong? Why would offering to help set her off like that? And what had made her stop?

Eventually, the increasingly painful throbbing in Wander’s arm forces him out of his spiraling thoughts. He realizes that he’s been breathing heavily and makes an effort to slow it. After a minute his head starts to feel clearer. Whatever was going on with Dominator would have to wait, he has more immediate problems to deal with; his arm is really starting to hurt now. He doesn’t really want to look at it, but he knows he needs to. Bracing himself, Wander turns his gaze towards the wound.

The first thing he sees is a mess of orange and red. His view of the cut itself is covered up with matted fur stuck together with congealing blood. On the bright side, it seems to be helping to slow the bleeding, but it also stops him from being able to see how deep the cut is. Even so, he’s patched up enough injuries to know when something needs stitches and proper care. Wander fights down a cold wave of disappointment; if it was just a bandage job he could do it himself, but he doesn’t think he’d be able to sew his arm up on his own. That means he would have to tell someone he was hurt, leading to questions he didn’t really want, or know how, to answer.

Wander briefly considers just bandaging it anyways and hoping for the best, but a quick dig through his hat turns up no bandages; only an SOS, a signal flare, and a map back to the camp.

“All right, old pal, I get the point. I need some help.” Wander huffs, using his good arm to place his hat back on his head.

His first thought is to find Sylvia, but he knows he won’t be able to keep how it happened a secret, at least not until his head has cleared up a bit and he’s less shaken. The last thing he wants is Sylvia leading a crusade against Dominator over an accident. He’ll tell her when he looks less like a mess, so she won’t overreact. And maybe he won’t mention _quite_ how bad it was.

That crosses out going to anyone else in their camp, he knows that the first thing they would do would be to get Sylvia, and if he asked them not to, they’d definitely get suspicious. That leaves only one option: The Skullship. 

Wander’s snuck onto Hater’s ship more times than he can count, and he knows they have a very impressive sick bay, courtesy of Mister Peeper’s insistence, most likely. Even if he does get seen, the lights are dim enough that the watchdogs might not even notice his arm; they’re good natured, but not the most… observant. If he can get to the infirmary without any incidents, he’s sure he can get whichever watchdog is on duty to lend him a hand. They might have some questions, sure, but it’ll be way easier to alleviate their suspicions than Sylvia and the other survivors. The only problem is Hater and Peeper’s themselves. Neither of them would let him weasel his way out of an explanation and both of them know him well enough to realize there’s something wrong.

Still, they’re not likely to send a mob after Dominator on his behalf, unlike the rest of the survivors, who have been acting a _tad_ protective since everything that had gone down the day before. It’s his best chance to get some help without things blowing out of proportion, so Wander takes a deep breath and uses his good arm to push himself into a standing position.

Walking back through the woods isn’t nearly as pleasant as his morning jaunt had been. His dizziness isn’t helped by moving around and his arm is jarred with every step. He keeps his hand pressed tight to his arm to staunch the sluggish bleeding his clumped fur doesn’t, and the pressure isn’t exactly comfortable. Still, its bearable, and Wander gets back to the camp pretty quickly.

Finding his way onto the Skullship is easier than usual too. With the damage it sustained the day before, there are plenty of cracks to sneak his way into, and he doesn’t even have to squeeze his way through any vents. Even the halls of the ship are emptier than usual, maybe Peepers is giving the watchdogs a day off? In any case its plenty easy to make his way to the infirmary.

The room doesn’t look like it belongs on the ship. Lit stark white in contrast to the dim neon of the halls, the room is clean and simple. There is a line of neatly made beds against one wall, with a series of cabinets and desks along the other. The standard medical equipment one would expect to see are all tucked neatly between furniture, and there’s a door along the back-wall Wander assumes leads to a room for operations and more serious conditions. The only thing missing is an attendant. It’s strange; even if the watchdogs were given the day off, Wander is sure Peepers would insist someone be there in case of an emergency.

Wander is just trying to figure out how to go about finding someone to lend him a hand when he hears a voice from behind him.

"Stop right there, intruder!” Wander recognizes Peepers voice immediately. He freezes, pulling his arm in closer to his chest.

“Mr. Peepers!” He says, turning but keeping his bad arm tilted away from where Peepers stands in the entrance. His stance is threatening, but his blaster is notably still at his hip, undrawn.

“How’d ya know I was here?” Wander says sheepishly.

“You think I’d be foolish enough to settle next to a bunch of potential enemies and leave the ship unmonitored?” Peepers says, drawing himself up to his full height.

“Well, jeeze, I thought maybe we were all potential friends, not enemies!”

“We’re not—” Peepers begins before cutting himself off. He takes a deep breath in, “What are you doing here anyways? And where’s your Zborbak bodyguard?” Peepers tenses as though expecting Sylvia to pop up out of nowhere.

“Ah well, it’s just me today, but I’m sure Syl will be happy to visit once she hears ya miss her!” Wander says.

Peeper’s sputters in denial. Wander lets him rant, hesitating over his next course of action.

Peepers definitely won’t leave him alone now that he knows he’s here, and as much as Wander doesn’t want to bring him into this, he might not have a choice; he’s starting to sway where he stands, and the dizziness is getting worse. Its definitely not a good idea to keep walking around without stopping the bleeding in his arm. Hopefully Peepers won’t mind too much if he asks for a favor.

“I’m sorry for barging in without notice,” Wander says to Peepers incredulous snort, “But I actually came to ask for a bit of a hand, pal to pal, if it’s not too much trouble.” Sheepishly, Wander brings his injured arm into view. Peepers’ eye widens, and then scans over him, seeming to fully take in his haggard appearance for the first time.

“We’re not pals,” He says, seemingly automatically, but moves forward to get a better look at the wound.

“So, you don’t wanna help? I mean that’s fine, but then could I maybe have some bandages? I can replace them once I—”

Peepers seems to come back to himself, drawing back and glaring at Wander.

“Quiet!” He snaps, “I didn’t say that! Go sit on the cot before you pass out.”

“I’m not going to faint,” He says, but walks over to the cot obediently as Peepers starts collecting supplies from one of the cabinets. He hops onto it with a wince and then a sigh, leaning back on his good arm, “But I got to tell you, it sure is nice to sit! Walking over here was not the most fun thing in the world. I really appreciate you helping me out by the way, you’re a great pal.”

Peepers glowers at him, dumping the supplies on a table next to the cot.

“Don’t misunderstand, I just don’t want you bleeding all over the floor. Besides, loath as I am to admit it, we are sort of allies,” Peepers says.

“Just for now!” He adds, noticing Wander’s growing grin, “Only until the galaxy is back to normal, Lord Hater is back to conquering, and you’re back to doing… whatever it is you do.”

Wander just hums, not able to fully suppress his smile. Even if Dominator is turning out to be a _bit_ of a challenge, at least he has Hater and Peepers to remind him how great of a friend an enemy can become.

Peepers glares at him as though he knows what he’s thinking, before replacing his usual gloves with a surgical pair, pulling them on with a snap.

Its silent as Peepers gets to cleaning the wound, washing away the blood and using a pair of tweezers to pull out any shards of metal. He’s focused as he works, studiously ignoring Wanders gaze. Wander winces when he sees Peepers pull an electric razor from his gathered equipment, knowing how long it’s going to take to grow his fur back to its normal length but doesn’t complain when Peepers shaves the area around the cut. When he’s done, he has Wander press the cloth against it again as he prepares a syringe with something, probably some kind of anesthesia. Peeper’s seems to notice Wander’s apprehension when he sees it, because he rolls his eye but says: “Take a deep breath, it’ll just take a second.”

Wander does as he says, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to ignore the sting of the injection. True to Peepers’ word its over in a second, and by the time Wander’s eyes are open Peepers’ is already threading the needle.

“Wow Mr. Peepers, you’re really good at this!” Wander says. Peepers pretends to scoff but Wander can tell he’s pleased.

“It’s nothing,” he says, “a Commander has to be able to look after his soldiers. I wouldn’t be much of one if I couldn’t take care of a basic wound like this.”

Wander’s pretty sure that medical care is not actually in the job description, but that’s what’s so great about Mr. Peepers: even though he yells a lot, in his heart he’s always looking out for people, anticipating their needs. Peepers doesn’t seem pleased when he points it out, almost dropping the now threaded needle as he sputters.

“I do not—I’m just doing my job; it has nothing to do with—agh! Just shut up so I can do this already and you can leave.”

Wander grins but stays quiet as Peeper’s gets to work, grumbling all the while. He really shouldn’t prod at Peepers so much when he’s helping him out, even if it is true.

He stays still as Peepers starts on the stitches. The tug of the needle is a weird feeling, even if the anesthesia stops it from causing pain. He runs his free hand of the thin sheet of the cot, trying to focus on that instead of the stitching.

After a bit he falls into a bit of a sort of lull, letting his eyes slip shut as exhaustion settles in. The run in with Dominator had taken more out of him that he thought, and on top of everything that had been happening just a day ago and the lack of sleep the night before, it’s no wonder it’s all catching up to him. Still, despite the exhaustion, he feels okay now. He feels safe. Even though the place he feels most secure in the world is curled up next to Sylvia, Peepers is a surprisingly comforting presence as well. Despite all the times he’s chased the nomad around with a blaster, Wander has never felt genuinely threatened in his presence. Unlike… Well, unlike some other people.

Peepers insistence on taking care of Wander speaks louder than his harsh words, and his competence is reassuring. Wander is pretty sure he would have fallen asleep sitting right there if Peepers hadn’t spoken up.

“Why are you actually here?” He says, not looking away from his work. Wander startles, scrambling through his tired mind for a reasonable response.

“Here? Uh, well I had a bit of an accident, and was hoping someone here could patch me up. Your infirmary is really impressive, you know?” Wander says, hoping Peepers will accept that and move on. He really doesn’t know how to even begin explaining what had happened with Dominator. He doesn’t even understand it himself and is not in the frame of mind to try to figure it out. All he knows at the moment is that Dominator hadn’t actually hurt him, no matter how much she had seemed to want to. She didn’t deserve to be punished for an impulse she hadn’t even followed, even if she had scared him. He would figure out how to move forward later, but that would never happen if she was kicked out of the galaxy before he could figure it out.

Wander definitely does not have the energy to explain that to Peepers at the moment, but it seems like he’ll have to come up with something, as Peepers doesn’t seem content to leave is there.

“I know your group has medical supplies; I saw them all patching each other up yesterday. You’re hiding something.” Peepers cuts the thread with a sharp snap, “How did you get this?”

Wander purses his lips, looking away. He glances back to see Peepers sitting with a roll of bandages in his lap, waiting for his answer. He sighs.

“I really did get it in an accident, I promise! I just didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings.”

Peepers squints at him.

“Why would there be a misunderstanding?” he says.

“Well… I was helping Dominator out with something when it happened, and I didn’t want the other survivors to make any assumptions. I knew you and the watchdogs wouldn’t freak out—”

“Dominator did this?!” Peepers screeches, jumping out of his chair, blaster already in hand.

“Or… not,” Wander says, watching as Peepers starts to pace.

“I knew it, that crazy galaxy destroyer is moving against us! I just didn’t think it would happen so soon; we’re not ready! If she’s making her move than that means some of her bots must have survived the explosion, there’s no way even _she_ would be so reckless as to attack all of us on her own. We’ll have to mobilize the Watchdogs—”

“Peepers!” Wander says, jumping off the cot and grabbing his arm to stop his pacing, “There are no bots, I would have told you if it was something like that!”

Peepers looks incredulous.

“I would have!” Wander defends, “I want to help her, not let her destroy the galaxy!” He leans back against the cot as a wave of dizziness sets in from his abrupt stand, “This is why I didn’t want to tell Syl and the others. I promise, Dominator didn’t do this. I hurt myself by mistake while helping her out, and uh, I didn’t want Dominator to bring me back, that would definitely look bad.”

Peepers eyes him with suspicion, still gripping his blaster tightly.

“You’re sure she’s not rebuilding her robot army?”

Wander’s mind flashes back to the metal she had been harvesting. The piece of her ship. She couldn’t have been using the materials to do that very thing, could she?

Some of his hesitance seems to show in his face, because Peepers’ eye narrows, and Wander can tell he’s about to spring into action, so he hurries to speak.

“She’s not rebuilding her robot army. Besides, it would take her way more than just a day to make enough robots to overpower all of the survivors. Not,” Wander adds, seeing the expression on Peepers’ face, “That I would let her, if she even wanted to. Which she doesn’t!”

“Then why not go get the Zbornak and the others to help you?”

“I told you, they would freak out before I could explain, and there would be a big mess! I didn’t want to start any trouble.”

“If you didn’t want any trouble you shouldn’t have asked that maniac to stay,” Peepers snorts.

Wander’s expression firms, “I’m going to help her, but I won’t let anyone else get hurt over this.” 

Peepers’ must read something in Wander’s face, because he holsters his blaster.

“Fine, for now. but I’ll be watching her.”

There’s a strained silence as Peepers gets back to work on his arm. He rubs some sort of salve over the cut, which is pleasantly cooling, and then cleanly bandages it up. Wander lets himself relax, the worst is over, and he made it through without accidentally setting the watchdogs on Dominator.

“Listen up,” Peepers says, straitening up, “I wasted precious time I could have been organizing repairs on the ship to do this, so I don’t want to have to redo it because you didn’t take care of it,” He shoves the salve into Wanders good arm, ignoring his protests.

“I’m only giving this to you because I don’t want to see you back here complaining about some infection or something. The only time I want to see you is to take out your stitches, and then hopefully never again.”

“Aw, you don’t mean that!” Wander pouts.

“Yes I do." Peepers says, rolling his eye, "Now let’s get you out of here before you waste even more of my time.”

“If you’re too busy to walk me I can show myself out, it’s no problem, I know the way.”

“Absolutely not,” Peepers scowls, “Now come on, let’s go already.”

The walk to the exit is silent. They don’t run into any of the other watchdogs, which is probably intentional considering that Peepers is always scolding them for how friendly they are to Wander. Wander is guiltily grateful; he already feels better, but he’s still a bit tired and lightheaded, not really up for the watchdogs’ energy.

“Thanks again for helping me out, it really means a lot. If you ever need anything, just give me a call, I’d be happy to repay the favor!” Wander says as they reach the exit, sunlight filtering through the door and dulling the neon lights of the ship.

“That’s… not going to happen,” Peepers says, but stops Wander before he leaves, “Make sure to drink and eat something when you get back. You lost blood so—”

“Oh my god! I forgot about breakfast! The others might need my help preparing it!” Wander says, cutting him off and clutching his face, “I hope the found the ingredients I left. Thanks again for your help, I gotta go!”

“No! I meant feed yourself, not those other idiots! Are you listening? And don’t run!” He yells as Wander breaks into an unsteady jog.

“Don’t worry about me Mr. Peepers! I’ll be fine!” Wander yells, almost tripping over a branch as he waves back.

“Oh my god, why did I bother helping that idiot.” Peepers groans, covering his eye with his hand as Wander stumbles out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for everyone's comments and kudos. You guys helped me find the motivation to sit down and write instead of just daydreaming.


End file.
